Atomic RoadRunners | Andrew Flynn’s High-Energy Fantasy Baseball

Nate Silver over at Baseball Prospectus makes his picks of players to underperform their PECOTA projections for 2008. 

1B Prince Fielder, Brewers: Something you probably didn’t know, or maybe you did—Fielder became a vegetarian this winter. In the long-run, that is probably a good thing for both his health and his performance. I saw Prince play at Wrigley on Wednesday and at first had the impression that he was bigger than last year, but realized that this was an artifact of his uniform looking baggier (it also might have been that I had much better seats than usual). I actually think that he’s lost some weight, but in the near-term this is potentially a pretty big change in his routine, and the worry I have is that the change was apparently not motivated by health reasons; Prince was persuaded by his wife that it was the right thing to do for ethical reasons. Perhaps worth noting is that Fielder was mediocre in spring training, hitting just one home run in 65 at-bats against Cactus League pitching.

I agree with Silver’s rationale - kidnap Prince and drag him to Morton’s!

Pirates SP Zach Duke shut out the Braves for five innings Thursday, but gave up three runs on three hits and a fielding error by Jack Wilson in the sixth. He was on the hook for the 3-2 loss before Pittsburgh rallied in the seventh. Duke allowed 10 hits and three runs (two earned) in 5 2/3 innings. He walked one and struck out one. He opens with a 3.18 ERA. Duke looked Thursday more like the kid who posted a 1.81 ERA in 2005, than the guy who struggled with a 5.53 ERA in 2007. That’s a good sign that he might be over the elbow problems that plagued him last season. Duke might be on the right track to reviving his career, but until we a consistent pitcher, he is more of a low-end NL-only Fantasy option. Manager John Russell likely left Duke in the game too long, but showed confidence in him by letting him try to get out of his sixth-inning jam. Duke threw 116 pitches against Atlanta and featured a fastball that regularly hit 90-92 mph, several mph faster than last year. His next scheduled start is for Wednesday against the Cubs. He was 0-1 with a 5.06 ERA in two starts against the Cubbies last season.  (CBS Sports, Rotowire)

Braves 3B Chipper Jones kept swinging a hot bat during Thursday’s game against the Pirates. Jones had three hits, all singles, in five at-bats. He has hit safely in the first four games and has multi-hit outings in three straight contests. He is hitting .444.  Chipper had been locked in at the plate to open the season and looks every bit as good a hitter as he has been throughout his career. Now, we can only hope he stays healthy because that seems about the only thing that can slow him down at the plate. Continue to start Larry Wayne in all Fantasy formats until further notice. (CBS Sports)

Mike Hampton is headed back to the disabled list after hurting himself in pregame warmups Thursday, preventing him from making his first start in almost three years.  Jo-Jo Reyes will be called up from Triple-A Richmond and will be available on Friday, but Manager Bobby Cox said he plans to activate Chuck James from the disabled list to take Hampton’s spot in the rotation.  James, who is on the 15-day DL because of a slight tear in his rotator cuff, has major league experience as he has won 11 games the last two seasons. James pitched six innings against some Braves minor-leaguers at Class A Rome (Ga.) on the Braves’ off day Tuesday. He was likely to make a few more rehab outing before being recalled, but now that Hampton is down, he is coming off the DL a lot earlier. James opted to go against shoulder surgery and did pitch down the stretch in spring training. When healthy, James is more of a NL-only and low-end mixed league Fantasy flier.  (CBS Sports)

Thursday’s game between the Brewers and Cubs got off to raucous start in the first when leadoff hitter Rickie Weeks flattened Cubs catcher Geovany Soto as he raced home on Prince Fielder’s sacrifice fly. Weeks, hit twice by pitches in Monday’s opener, led off with a walk and moved to third on Tony Gwynn’s double. Chicago right fielder Kosuke Fukudome made a strong throw to the plate after catching Fielder’s fly, but Weeks knocked Soto down before he could catch the ball. The ball rolled away and Ryan Dempster retrieved it, but his throw to Soto couldn’t get Gwynn, who also raced home and made it 2-0. Fukudome was charged with an error on the throw. Fielder did his job Thursday and plated his first runs of the 2008 season. Later in the game, he had a RBI single and is now hitting .300 through three games. He has reached base safely via a hit in each contest. Fielder hasn’t had much of a power swing yet, but it is coming folks. The kid is still a 50-homer threat. Leave him active in all Fantasy formats.  (CBS Sports)

Mark Teixeira went 0-for-5 on Thursday and is off to a 2-for-19 start for the season.
It’s nothing new for Teixeira, a career .251/.348/.441 hitter during April. His OPS is at least 100 points better in every other month of the season. His homer totals by month are especially fun: 16, 23, 27, 31, 35 and 38. (Rotoworld)

Scott Hatteberg is 0-for-8 this season after going hitless in his second start in three games on Thursday. Since the Reds declined to keep a right-handed hitter to help out at first base, Hatteberg got the nod against left-hander Doug Davis today. Once Alex Gonzalez comes back, Jeff Keppinger figures to play first base versus lefties. The Reds face righties each of the next three days. Joey Votto figures to start at least one and perhaps two of the games. (Rotoworld)

Overall Standings

Rank Team                Batting Pitching Total Dif  Behind
---- ------------------- ------- -------- ----- ---- ------
 1   Goodfellas          32.5    36.5     69.0  69.0 0.0
 2   Shoeless Jews       24.0    44.0     68.0  68.0 1.0
 3   Misogynistic Padres 36.0    25.5     61.5  61.5 7.5
 4   The Pi Train        30.5    27.5     58.0  58.0 11.0
 5   Get Off Kong!       31.0    22.0     53.0  53.0 16.0
 6   Uncle Lester        24.5    27.0     51.5  51.5 17.5
 7   Atomic Roadrunners  24.5    25.5     50.0  50.0 19.0
 8   X-Men               14.5    34.0     48.5  48.5 20.5
 9   Stanimals           34.5    13.0     47.5  47.5 21.5
 10  Cover Zero          23.0    20.0     43.0  43.0 26.0  

Yesterday's Stats

Atomic Roadrunners Players Yesterday (4/3/08) F
Player                        BA HR R RBI   SB
------------------------- ------ -- - --- ----
Fielder, Prince 1B MIL    0.3333  0 0   2    0
Hart, Corey C. RF MIL     0.0000  0 0   0    0
Jones, Chipper 3B ATL     0.6000  0 1   0    0
Phillips, Brandon 2B CIN  0.2500  0 1   1    0
Spilborghs, Ryan CF COL   0.0000  0 0   0    0
Teixeira, Mark 1B ATL     0.0000  0 0   0    0
Theriot, Ryan SS CHC      0.2000  0 0   1    1
Victorino, Shane CF PHI   0.2500  0 0   1    0

Atomic Roadrunners Players Yesterday (4/3/08) F
Player                       ERA  K S   W WHIP
------------------------- ------ -- - --- ----
Duke, Zach SP PIT           3.18  1 0   0 1.94